


Forget

by Hazel_Alternian



Category: Starbound (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Family Bonding, Genocide, Lesbians in Space, Space Opera
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:55:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29673837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hazel_Alternian/pseuds/Hazel_Alternian
Summary: A short story inspired by one of my Starbound playthroughs.The main character is a novakid, Xylene.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)





	Forget

Fire, rubble, screams, corpses, and an ever-burning flame that rang amongst the worst of it. 

It was a special day, the graduation, and no one was ready for The Earth to be slaughtered by giant tentacles. Xylene had managed to run soon enough thanks to the help of the S.A.I.L V.I.   
With the few resources she had time to gather and two water bottles she had purchased that morning from a vending machine, she was now in her escape ship, watching as many other interstellar transports tried to take off. Some burned in the atmosphere, some never took off, but she did see a few managing to reach FTL speed and jump into hyperdrive. Just like she did, stumbling into her cryobed with her mind foggy. Her head weighed on her shoulders with the memories of what had just happened.

But it was better not to think about it, that was always the best way to deal. Now she was in a new galaxy, and had new problems to worry about. Her navigation systems were busted, she only had four cans of food and the two water bottles, and no fuel to move to a different star system.   
Luckily, the teleporter was working, and she was able to beam down to the world below. The ship had ended near a gentle star, and so a lush planet with some rocky mountains and green forests full of pine-like trees was her first destination. She didn’t bother to learn the name of the planet, it wasn’t necessary.

There wasn’t much on it. A lonely colonist, camped at the entrance of a mine... Mud, silver, copper and core fragments to ignite the system of an old aft console that teleported her to a strange temple where an old lady told her of an ancient prophecy and how a monster had destroyed The Earth. Bah, it was all in the past now anyways.   
…  
It was easy to forget now, that she had ever had a different life. She barely thought about Earth, her training to become part of the protectorate, her friends and family, now probably dead.   
It was only on times like these, when she laid down on her sleeping bag on the cold floor of her ship, that she thought about it. Her pet Cloud was snuggled up to her, it had been on the ship before she stole it to escape.   
She stared at the ceiling, at the flickering lights of the star maps. The novakid could hear the slow breathing of her crewmates, people she’d picked along the way, she was a captain now. Nata, Akua and Naki. A glitch, a floran and a hyotl. One engineer and two chemists. They reminded her of her long lost friends, of the classes, the parties, the training.

But it was easy to forget about it when she marched head first into battle wielding her burst rocket launcher, when she collected the rent from the colony she’d started on Almirath III b. Her attention span preferred to lock onto more interesting topics or missions, like exploring space. Or building EPP equipment to shield her from the environmental hazards she found, crafting a new teddy bear for the miner’s son at the Outpost, and helping villagers trade notes in faraway colonies. 

It was only when she did find other earthlings that she was forced to remember, when their comments, brief but clear enough, brought back those terrible overcast memories from the depths of her memory.  
“We used to get more humans here, but not anymore.” Because they were dead.  
“The terraria shop’s earth products have gone up to the gragged stratosphere!” Because Earth no longer existed.  
“I want to gift this to my friend Helena, it’s for the pictures of the family she lost when that happened” Annihilation.

It was those moments that got her to focus, go on missions and recover artifacts, and slowly but inexorably she was making progress. Because she never had had a home planet, that her race didn’t remember anything about their history but flickers of light and hydrogen, didn’t mean she’d let The Ruin run amok.   
For Akua, and Nata, and Naki, and the Cloud.  
For the dead, the unborn, and the lost.  
For all those friends that she believed were gone but might still be alive and would never meet her again because the universe was so unimaginably large they could go their whole lives without ever finding each other.  
For her colony, little but successful so far.  
For love, death and friendship and life.

“Xylene is still awake?” Whispered Akua with her raspy floran accent.  
“Yeah.”  
“Xylene sounds sad, why sad?”  
“Just remembering.”  
“Floran thought novakid forget quick and easy.”  
“Sometimes, though…”  
“Akua helps, Xylene wants company?”

A smile tugged on the corners of her not mouth as she made room for the floran woman in her sleeping bag.  
“Please” She said.  
With a rustle, Akua joined her. Nata beeped a few times telling them to shut it already and let him recharge in peace.  
“Loved rests now, Akua tired too, Xylene needs rest.”  
“True, but I’m not tired.”

With a fang-full grin, Akua dragged her out of the blue sleeping bag and they tiptoed over to the cockpit.  
Between kiss and kiss, and caresses, and bites, Xylene finally decided, as her old protectorate uniform shirt was discarded to the floor, that sometimes it was better to...  
Forget.


End file.
